Welcome Message from the Executive Director

Welcome to the website of North Carolina's Eastern Region Military Growth Task Force. Our organization was created in response to the growth of nearly 17,000 new jobs at our eastern North Carolina military bases, including Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, and the Marine Corps Air Stations at New River and Cherry Point. Added to the direct job growth, family members and new service sector jobs have combined to create a population growth of approximately 55,000 new residents in our region.

We are funded by the Department of Defense (Office of Economic Adjustment), the State of North Carolina, North Carolina's Eastern Region, each of our nine member counties and several private donors. Our mission is to analyze impacts to our area and develop regional responses to the most pressing community challenges. The analysis phase of our work was completed in late 2009; since then, we have been working to implement the recommendations of the Regional Growth Management Plan (RGMP).

The Military Growth Task Force, through its Board of Directors and working groups, plays a key role as an essential link between local governments, existing regional entities in the public and private sectors, and our military installations. I invite you to review our site to familiarize yourself with the wide array of issues we are addressing. In particular, please note that the task of creating, stewarding and eventually institutionalizing the PlanIt EAST regional planning forum has become our primary focus. Once this partnership has been solidified and set up for continued success, the work of the Task Force will be complete. We intend to accomplish this by late 2013.

North Carolina Logistics Iniative(NCLI)Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. military has discussed privatization of some of its traditionally organic maintenance functions. Today, as a result of the wartime stresses of the past decade, the discussion has reached a new fervor. While billions of dollars are dedicated annually to help meet the increasing demand, the sheer scale and scope of repairing vehicles and equipment returning from overseas coupled with shrinking defense budgets and new performance targets (including cost, energy, and the environment) has created a need to improve the way this work is accomplished. Specifically, performing ground systems maintenance in NC makes sense. It’s good business for the military, for the defense contractors, and for North Carolina.

To learn more about NCLI, please click here or visit North Carolina's Eastern Region at www.nceast.org.